Beyond Housing for Health: Using Flexible Funds to Improve Maternal and Child Health.

Upstreaming Housing for Health (UHfH) was a pilot program that aimed to improve housing stability and reduce health inequities among people experiencing high-risk pregnancies and their infants. It served 50 families from 2019 to 2020. One critical component of UHfH was an innovative flexible fund, which was originally designed to address housing stability (e.g., rent arrears) but expanded its scope to address material needs that promoted family stability within the context of their housing situation (e.g., housing safety or maternal-infant health while in shelter). Seventy-six percent of families accessed flexible funds for items such as rental assistance, cribs, and breast pumps, with average financial support of $1343 (standard deviation = $625). The flexible fund is an example of a cash transfer policy. Such policies have shown to positively impact family health and well-being in the USA and internationally. Similar funding should be considered as part of future programming to reduce housing instability and homelessness.

Changing The Face Of Health Care Delivery: The Importance Of Youth Participation.

Young people are often the intended audience for health and social programs, yet they rarely participate in the decision-making processes that determine how these programs are designed, implemented, or evaluated. Failing to meaningfully engage young people, well-intended adults may miss opportunities to create relevant and effective programs and policies for youth. This article describes a youth-led health assessment conducted with researchers from an academic medical center accountable care organization and stakeholders from a local community center. We explain the process of recruiting and engaging youth in this project, along with health concerns they identified in their communities via a survey, including mental and sexual health, food access, and community safety, as well as recommendations the youth researchers developed for improving health and tackling inequities. Our findings show that youth participation fosters a deeper sense of empowerment and leadership potential. Policy makers and other health leaders should consider engaging young people as they make decisions about health care delivery.

Critical discourse, applied inquiry and public health action with urban middle school students: Lessons learned engaging youth in critical service-learning.

The Nuestro Futuro Saludable partnership designed a critical service-learning intervention focused on health equity and action. The ten-week afterschool intervention was implemented in a Boston middle school. Youths who took part in the intervention were knowledgeable about the social determinants of health in their communities, as well as to the barriers to health. Our findings indicate that engaging young people in a meaningful way will be critical if health improvement efforts are to be realized. We found that a critical service-learning framework that incorporates elements of applied inquiry and critical pedagogy was effective as a health intervention and provided opportunities for action.

Employing a community based participatory research approach to bear witness: psycho-social impact of the 2010 earthquake on Haitians in Somerville, MA.

We employed a community-based participatory research approach to assess mental health among the Haitian community in the Somerville, MA area. The development of the survey coincided with the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and so several questions related to the natural disaster were included in the analysis to increase understanding of the impact locally. We surveyed a convenience sample of 64 Haitians recruited with the assistance of the Somerville Haitian Coalition. The survey assessed demographic data, reasons for migrating to the area, response to the 2010 earthquake, and mental health. Mental health measures included the short versions of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and the Perceived Stress Scale. Participants reported high rates of stress and depression post-earthquake. On the CES-D, men reported higher average depression and stress scores than women (13.8 vs. 11 and 20.6 vs. 17.6). Our results suggest that social and family support resources may be beneficial to Haitians in our sample.

Research as curriculum: engaging undergraduates and community residents in immigrant health research partnerships.

BACKGROUND: Engaging undergraduate students in applied community research partnerships can promote greater health equity by providing students with the skills and capacity to work collaboratively with diverse populations. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this project was to develop a sustainable model to engage community members and students in public health research. METHODS: Using an integrated research-as-curriculum model, students, community members, and faculty collaborated on the study design and implementation. CONCLUSIONS: Community residents in the classroom provided insights that strengthened the research process and helped to develop our understanding of contextual factors that influence health and well-being. This model provides a mechanism by which to fully incorporate undergraduate students in interdisciplinary partnership research for health.

Team-building activities as strategies for improving community-university partnerships: lessons learned from Nuestro Futuro Saludable.

BACKGROUND: Collaboration characterized by mutual capacity building, asset sharing, and tangible outcomes that work to further health equity are central tenets of community-based participatory (CBPR) approaches to research. Such efforts require the establishment, development, and maintenance of trusting relationships between community and institutional stakeholders. OBJECTIVES: The objective of the strategies discussed here was to strengthen a community-academic partnership by facilitating communication and empowering project partners. METHODS: Team-building activities and experiential exercises were intentionally utilized with project stakeholders to clarify roles and responsibilities, provide alternative avenues for authentic communication, and share power. LESSONS LEARNED: Team-building activities can be effective in promoting CBPR partnerships when utilized appropriately. Through the course of the partnership building process, best practices emerged for utilizing experiential learning exercises to enhance partnership dynamics. CONCLUSIONS: Team-building activities provide a useful tool for developing supportive environments that encourage open dialogue.

Lessons Learned from the Protección en Construcción Community Research Partnership.

PenC seeks to build community-university-labor partnership in order to design, implement and evaluate an intervention aimed at preventing falls and silica exposure among Latino construction workers. This study evaluated the PenC partnership process. Semi-structured partner interviews and surveys were used. Thematic, univariate and bivariate analyses were conducted; results were presented back to partners who then provided data context. Although all partners report increased capacity including new connections and knowledge, resident researchers, here promotores, are much more likely to share information with their neighbors and other local residents. Engaging residents can lead to deeper community penetration.

Nuestro Futuro saludable: connecting public health research and community development in partnership to build a healthy environment.

Caribbean Latinos are the largest Latino group in Boston, primarily located in the Jamaica Plain (JP) neighborhood. There are various macro-level public health issues that result from the built environment in JP, factors which can create and sustain health disparities. Caribbean Latino youth are a priority group in JP, and it is important to address the causes of disparities early in life to promote good health. Presented here is an integrated research-and-action model to engage community stakeholders and researchers in designing an intervention to mitigate the negative health effects of the built environment and maximize community assets. The approach operates from a community empowerment model that allows public health practitioners, policy makers, researchers and residents to take an up-stream approach to improve health by focusing on the built environment, which is integral to community development.